Ryan Murphy Dishes the Dirt on the Upcoming Seasons of ‘Glee’ and ‘American Horror Story’

Ryan Murphy is one seriously busy dude. Not only is the writer and producer busy corralling the jazz-handed squadrons on Glee, but he’s also scaring up ghosties for the second season of American Horror Storyand launching the new gaybie comedy The New Normal. Where did he ever find time to give Vulture an interview?

Well, I’m glad he did, because we got all sorts of goodies about the next seasons of our favorite shows. As for Glee, Murphy says that the upcoming Season 4 gets the New Directions back to their underdog status, whatever that means. He says there are going to be fewer characters than ever (even though all the regulars from the cast will be back next year in non-central roles). He also says that Will Schuester will get something to do other than wear sweater vests and that Sue Sylvester will have a new villain to hate. Oh and (spoiler alert!) Will doesn’t get married tonight. Oopsie!

All of this sounds very promising. However, I disagree with his assessment that the show is doing what it has always been doing and the only thing that’s changed is critics’ perception of it. The show is remarkably different from Season 1 and it’s possible that a failure to acknowledge that is what makes a series that was once universally loved now nearly unwatchable to many.

Good news for Murphy fans though, is that Season 2 of American Horror Story sounds absolutely amazing. “It’s set in an institution for the criminally insane that Jessica Lange’s character runs, which is a really, really, really fun thing to do because you can write all these people locked up in it,” says Murphy.

He adds, “And I guess if the first season was about infidelity, the second season is about sanity … I haven’t said this publicly, but the new season is set in the sixties and Chloë Sevigny, for example, plays a character who was put in an asylum because she was a woman who likes sex, so her husband sends her away. At the time, you were able to put people away for that. Another character is institutionalized for being a lesbian.”

I was going to be watching already, but now I am more excited that Kurt Hummel at an ugly poncho warehouse sale. Who is Adam Levine going to be playing? A man who has multiple personality disorder and thinks he’s Mick Jagger?

Check out the rest of the interview where Murphy talks about his other new shows and One Hit Wonders a musical he’s planning with Gwyneth Paltrow, Reese Witherspoon, and Cameron Diaz. Yes, you read that right. Yes, your brain probably just exploded too.